Pat McAfee on Getting The Rock’s Permission to Use His Catchphrase on WWE SmackDown

– As previously reported, The Rock praised Pat McAfee for his promo last week on WWE SmackDown, challenging Happy Corbin to a match at SummerSlam. Pat McAfee spoke on his radio show on getting permission from The Rock to use his catchphrase on the show. He stated the following (via Fightful):

“Shoutout to The Rock by the way, thanks man. People are wondering, in the wrestling world, when you say somebody else’s catchphrase, it’s kind of a thing. Don’t want to go too in the weeds here, but I did get permission beforehand from Dwayne Johnson to say it. If you do recall, in my last program against Austin Theory, when I was allowed to speak into the mic, I was in the middle of doing it and I got interrupted. That was around the time when I originally got the ‘okay’ to say it. That was in Miami, I think. It would have went bananas. I apologize for not…it seems like I kind of ripped your thing, didn’t give you credit, they started the music. It was a whole situation, I didn’t know they were hitting the music then. I’m the only person in the history of the company, maybe modern era, where I’m kind of told some things, but all things. ‘You only need to know what you need to know.’ ‘I get a chance to speak tonight?’ ‘Yeah, you’re speaking tonight.’ Then I’ll send a [text], ‘This is what I’m thinking. Can I drop a (line)?’ He actually responded and said, ‘Give me some context so we can really get this thing going.’ He gave me an entire ‘here we go.’ I’m very grateful and thankful for The Rock. I appreciate the hell out of him.”

You can view a clip from the promo and The Rock’s comments below:

In front of the MILLIONS…. AAAAAND MILLIONS….

“BUM ASS CORBIN”
That’s good shit brother! 👏🏾👏🏾👊🏾
Great promo. Enjoyed watching this #ISmellIt 🎤

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) June 25, 2022